Posted by Michael Street on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 8:48 pm

I was all ready to report this morning that Ken Griffey, Jr., would be a Brave, as pretty much everything I found online reported that a deal with Atlanta was all but done. But now several sources are now saying he’ll be back in Seattle, giving baseball its feel-good story of the season.

Except for its proximity to his family’s home in Orlando, a deal with Atlanta just doesn’t make sense. Though even Griffey’s diminished power would be an improvement, expecting him to play the field and stay healthy for an entire season is folly.

At least in Seattle, he will have the option of DHing, though that also pushes Jeff Clement out of that spot. Likely Don Wakamatsu will institute a rotation of Griffey and Clement at DH, Griffey and Endy Chavez in LF, and Clement and Johjima at C. Griffey could even spend some time at 1B, a notion that seems somehow sacreligious for someone once considered the smoothest center fielder in the game.

Those days are long behind him, of course, along with the days where Griff would crack more than 40 dingers in a season. The Mariners would be ecstatic with 30 homers, or a SLG higher than the .422 he managed in 2008. A line something like .260/.350/.450 wouldn’t be out of the question, and would be far better than what they could expect out of either Chavez or Clement.

Junior’s biggest asset, of course, is his million-dollar smile and the good juju involved in merely coming home—which, as George Carlin pointed out, is the ultimate goal of the game. The Mariners will need his veteran presence in the clubhouse, now that Raul Ibanez is gone. And who wouldn’t like to see Griff in left and Ichiro in right, a union of the two best players ever to come from their respective countries?

Neither Griff nor A-Rod have played as well as they did in a Mariners’ uniform, and given the problems both have encountered since leaving the Emerald City, one has to wonder about some kind of curse. Certainly, if Griffey explodes for a 50 HR season and goes back to making spectacular catches in Safeco’s spacious outfield, Alex might think about coming back.

That’s pure fancy, but what’s undeniable is the shiver that Mariners’ fans will feel at seeing Junior back in the starting nine—er, ten—and if there’s anything this fan base needs, it’s a reason to go to the ballpark. Major League Baseball, too, needs a story like this as it tries to crawl out from under the massive weight of the steroids scandal.

So we’re all praying, not for a miraculous season from Junior, but at least a healthy and productive one. That would be miraculous enough.